Fury's Dream Team
by hawkster55
Summary: What if Steve woke up thirty years too early? What if Loki fell from the Bifrost as a child? What if Fury's dream team was made up of a bunch of kids? AU. All Avengers appear, also featuring badass!Peggy Carter, Barney Barton, young!Fury and Coulson, and a couple of OCs who are not the main focus. This isn't technically a de-aged fic - they were never 'aged' in the first place…
1. Chapter 1

**A/N I wanted to write a de-aged fic, but I didn't really want Steve to be a kid, because he was the only one who would completely lose his abilities. Anyway, he's far more fun to write as an adult. And yet I wanted all the others to be kids, even Thor. So then some dark corner of my mind suggested waking Steve up about thirty years too early.**

**Hang on. I'm a British teenager. I'm trying to write about America in the early 1980s.**

**On self-esteem and Stark-tech grounds, it's going to look and feel like America in the 21st century (which I still know nothing about, but hey). It's probably easiest to imagine as WWII having happened in the 60s/70s, which makes everyone the right age(ish), except in 2012 rather than 1982. And time clearly goes faster on Asgard than on Midgard.**

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><p>Steve blinked open bleary eyes. Upon noticing his surroundings, he squeezed them shut again and wished that the world would just go away and leave him alone. Then he realised that this approach didn't lead to a long-term solution to his current predicament, so he resigned himself to fate.<p>

Tentatively, he forced his eyes open a fraction, allowing the light to scorch his brain in the vague hope that God was merely joking the first time around.

_Why was he still alive?_

There were distinct memories of crashing a plane into an iceberg, and although they seemed somewhat faint and distorted, they were definitely there and had definitely happened. Which was more concerning than reassuring, really; granted, there weren't exactly many test subjects for the super-soldier serum, but he was pretty certain that he definitely shouldn't be alive, thinking, breathing and wherever the hell he was now. Which, judging by his surroundings, was some kind of military hospital - probably someplace back in America.

_How did they find him?_

Again, iceberg. Plane. He'd known the military was good, but not this good. He would have expected them to take at least fifteen years to find him, buried in snow and ice as he was. And besides, they had bigger things to focus on. Like the war.

How much had he missed, exactly? What happened while he had been lying here, useless in his recovery? Was he still in time for that dance with Peggy? It seemed too much to hope for, but still…

Confused as he was, one thing was clear in his mind: he needed answers, and answers did not come from lying in a hospital bed.

Leo watched the video feed in utter boredom as Captain America snored peacefully, completely oblivious to the new, shiny world around him. He tried to imagine what it would be like, waking up thirty years in the future, and grudgingly decided that the war hero was probably better off asleep after all.

Swinging his feet onto the control panel, he flicked the switch to turn the comm. in his ear on and took a swig of the coffee by his side.

"Matt, he's not doing anything," he whined into his earpiece at his friend and fellow agent.

"Sucks to be you," Matt said in irritation. He had drawn the short straw and was currently raiding the store cupboard for towels, standard issue clothes and toiletries for two new transfers that Agent Fury, his boss, had somehow picked up. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find anything in this mess?"

"Having fun?" Leo teased. He'd recently been transferred from Fury's squad to help Agent Coulson keep an eye on the recently-rediscovered super-soldier, and had managed to evade babysitting the nine-year-old terrors.

"Bucketloads," Matt groaned. "You'd think, wouldn't you, that given that this is the Junior division, they'd have stuff that wasn't all Large, or Extra-Large. But nope, why would they bother thinking of something like that?"

"Naw... go wash it, maybe it'll shrink," Leo said helpfully.

"I'm going to murder Fury. Wish the Council would let us move to that New York warehouse already. I swear they come up with this stuff on pur- Oh, hi, Agent Fury, didn't see you there!" Matt put on a falsely cheery and utterly unconvincing voice as he apparently walked into the man in question. "Oh no, I was just saying how good it is that there's so much stuff in here, um, and it's so easy to find... shut up, Leo!" he hissed in annoyance. "What? Oh, nothing, I didn't say anything, nothing at all...yes, that's right..." Matt trailed off as Fury began what was undoubtedly one of his famous and lengthy rants.

Leo reluctantly muted Matt's channel and turned back to monitoring Rogers, smirking at his friend's misadventure. His grin was quickly wiped from his face as he saw the super-soldier sitting up in bed. He flipped the intercom back on quickly.

"Matt, we have a, uh, issue..." he began.

"What? Leo, I'm kind of busy being ranted at," Matt muttered.

"Well, I don't know, gag him or something, just get rid of him; Cap's smelt a rat," Leo cursed, pushing random buttons in order to get a better angle on Rogers' expression. There was no textbook on dealing with time-displaced, super-powered war heroes, and Coulson would probably carve his brains out if anything went even remotely south on his watch. Coulson had always been creepily over-protective of the war hero. Which was partly why he had been assigned watch duty in the first place, but still.

"Oh poo. Okay, I'm coming, hang on," Matt groaned. Leo heard him excuse himself and run down the corridor.

Leo swivelled round in his chair to face the door as it opened to reveal a panting Matt.

"You got out of that one incredibly quickly," Leo commented.

"Didn't give him time to stop me," Matt flashed a quick grin before glancing at the video feed.

"Okay, what did you say his name was again?"

"Steve."

Matt rolled up his sleeves. "Right, well I'll just go and get him then."

"What? But we don't have clearance to tell him anything, he's just gonna get annoyed –" Leo pointed out, but Matt was already out the door. "Crap," he muttered to himself. Mentally preparing for what was bound to ensue, he watched a miniaturised Matt approach Rogers, who looked a bit dazed to say the least.

"Hey," Matt began with a smile clearly intended to be reassuring. "Look, I know this is all a bit strange and I really shouldn't be in your room, but, uh, the thing is, this isn't actually your room. And um, yeah, this is probably one of those if-I-told-you-I'd-have-to-kill-you situations. I've always wanted to be in one of them, you know?"

Rogers stared at him.

"Okay, let's try this a different way. We've uh, kidnapped you... although the term 'kidnapped' is a bit strong... Bad Dobby!" Matt hit himself on the head. "Sorry, don't have clearance to tell you that..."

"Matt, you're meant to be trying to be normal," Leo reminded him. "Maybe you'd better bring him here."

"Okay. On it," Matt said. "Right, Stevie, Cap, Capsicle, whatever you want to be called, follow me or the yellow brick road to freedom or infinity and beyond or something." Leo watched him stride out, and a moment later Rogers followed.

The door opened again and the two of them entered. Rogers looked utterly bewildered and stood awkwardly in the corner, staring around at the monitors in bemusement. Anyone looking at him would have thought he was seeing it all for the first time – which, come to think of it, he probably was.

"Leo, what are we going to do?" Matt hissed.

"I don't know - this was your idea!" Leo shot back. This was definitely not how his morning was meant to go.

"We can't tell him where he is, we don't have clearance."

"That's exactly what I told you!"

"Well why didn't you say so?"

"What?"

"Who are you?" Rogers finally interrupted, his voice laden with suspicion.

"The tooth fairy," Matt replied helpfully.

"I'm Leo Hawkins, this is Matt Parker," Leo sighed. That at least was information he could divulge, right? Surely it was better to give away some of the answers, pretend to be totally transparent for as long as it took for Coulson to get here? Admittedly not a great plan in the long run, but then the long run involved Coulson being there to smooth everything over, so_ he_ could deal with all the goddamn repercussions as far as Leo was concerned. What really mattered at the moment was keeping Captain America there, talking and relatively contained, for as long as possible.

"Don't diss his accent, he gets annoyed easily," Matt added, referring to the distinct Irish lilt to his friend's voice.

"Shut up, Matt. What are we going to tell Coulson?"

"I don't know, he's your boss!"

"Why am I here?" Rogers tried again at what seemed to be a valiant attempt at making sense of the situation. "Where exactly is here?"

Leo looked at Matt, trying to convey that this was all his fault and that he was therefore going to be the one to answer.

_I use that look far too much._

"Right. Well. Um." Matt floundered. Leo kicked him. "Okay, uh, this is all a dream."

Leo buried his head in his hands. Coulson was going to _murder_ them.

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><p><strong>AN Hey everyone, Hawk here. Originally I was going to wait until I'd finished I'm Alive before I started posting this, but I'm not especially good at waiting, so here you go. I'm writing it as I go, so don't expect updates to be that frequent, but reviews can always help the writing process along ;)**

**I'll post a summary of the current situation as the next chapter, just so it's clear to everyone when this is, who's who and how old everyone is at the moment. Matt and Leo are my OCs, and they're basically here for comic relief and as a backup PoV because all the current adults are really hard to write :/ Don't worry, they won't be dominating the story.**

**Feedback on the concept, OCs and stuff would be greatly appreciated, even if you don't like them. ****Also visit the poll on my profile page - which Avengers do you find it easiest to write/understand?**

**Thanks,**

**Hawk :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Cast and context, as promised.**

**Steve** - Perfectly normal, he just woke up about thirty years too early. Howard Stark pulled him and the Tesseract out of the ocean less than a year ago and promptly died.

**Peggy** - Aged 66, she was a high-ranking SHIELD agent, and still has quite a bit of influence there. She retired after Howard Stark's death in order to look after Tony. She and Howard developed the Rogers Initiative eight years ago in memory of Steve. The Initiative provides opportunities to children from the age of nine whose parents cannot/will not support them, show potential and character, and want a second chance at life to make something out of it.

**Fury** - Aged 26, he's been put in charge of the Rogers Initiative because he's helping Coulson out while Steve wakes up.

**Clint** - Aged 9, he was picked up by SHIELD from the circus two years ago after he and Barney were left for dead by its owners. He's been honing his archery skills ever since. He makes most of the effort to try to get both Barney and Natasha making the most of SHIELD.

**Natasha** - Aged 9, she's been trained in the Red Room for most of her life. Although hostile when SHIELD first picked her up a little more than a year ago, she's warmed up a bit and started interacting with the rest of the world again.

**Barney** - Aged 14, he was brought in with Clint two years ago but has never displayed the same proficiency at anything as his younger brother.

**Coulson** - Aged 23, he's in charge of getting Steve awake and contributing to modern society. Which he's pretty pleased about.

**Tony** - Aged 11, he's inherited Stark Industries and all their money from the death of his father a year ago. First thing he does? Build a suit. He's pretty hostile towards Steve and SHIELD because his father ignored him in favour of rescuing Captain America.

**Bruce** - Aged 13, he was playing in his dad's lab a few years ago when he spilt a load of radioactive stuff, transforming into the Hulk. SHIELD picked him up pretty quickly after that.

**Loki** - Aged 10ish. His backstory gets sorted out in chapter five, which is why you can't have it right now :P

**Thor** - Aged 12ish. He's been sent by Odin to retrieve Loki.

**Leo** - Aged 18. Logical, original, creative thinker. Leo was part of the secret junior division of SHIELD, which was sanctioned by Peggy eight years ago. He initially joined Fury's squad a year ago, but when Captain America was discovered he was transferred to help Coulson out pretty quickly.

**Matt** - Aged 19. Friendly, adaptable, action-oriented. Matt joined SHIELD the normal way by pretending to be normal about a year ago and was put in Fury's squad.

**Context - **I think I gave the wrong impression in the first chapter; this story is actually set in the present day, which I guess makes it proper AU. This is not just because I have no idea about America or the eighties, but also because the Stark tech is pretty important and wouldn't exist back then. So WWII actually happened in the seventies. Sorry to anyone who now hates me.

Howard Stark used to be in charge of SHIELD, but then he died. Now the Council are being awkward and opposing anyone who tries to take over. Which is great for them, because they're busy hatching an evil plan, but it's not so great for the protagonists because they are by definition protagonists and, as such, don't like evil plans.

Thor and Loki might seem really young to be doing some of the things the plot requires them to do, but my logic is thus: they age much slower on Asgard, so they're much more experienced than your average ten- or twelve-year-old. Plus Midgard isn't really much of a threat to an Asgardian, no matter how mini they are. And Daddy has Heimdall watching them play.

**LostHawk - **Thanks for the review! Lol yeah, I'm going to have a lot of fun writing Steve with a load of kid!Avengers. I hope you have as much fun reading it.

**Summer Leigh Wind** - Thanks, your review has highlighted a lot of areas that I didn't realise needed sorting out: the secondary plot line was engulfing the Avenger plot line, and the confusion with the time periods. Loki has an excuse planned out, so hopefully Asgard won't seem too mean and evil.

If you have a spare three seconds, please remember to vote on the poll on my profile.

I will post the next chapter today too because I feel bad just giving you guys this.

**Hawk :D**


	3. Chapter 3

Steve followed Matt and Leo cautiously. He wasn't really sure where they were taking him, but since he hadn't found answers to any of his questions yet he fully intended to trail after them for as long as it took to get a response of some kind. He didn't recognise his surroundings and he had absolutely no idea where he was, but the people seemed friendly enough and nobody had actively tried to kill him yet, so he counted that as a bonus. He stayed on his guard though; he could tell that there was something very wrong.

Everything seemed slightly off - the corridor they were walking down, the room he had woken up in, the uniforms of his two guides. It was almost as if he had stepped straight into some kind of science fiction novel. The place had a distinctly military air, but it was nothing like the military feeling he'd got on bases in the field; this place was less frantic and exhausted, more efficient and structured. Maybe he was back in America, then, where the war wasn't as potent as it was on the front line. So how had he got here?

They stopped as they reached a door and the redhead (Leo, his brain supplied) rummaged in his pocket for something. He extracted what appeared to be a security pass of some kind and waved it in front of the door vaguely. Steve frowned. Was he expecting that to do something?

Apparently he was, because he looked confused when nothing happened and held the pass up to the door again.

"What's wrong with it?" Leo asked in annoyance when still nothing happened. The other one, whose name had vanished from Steve's overworked brain, suddenly started laughing.

"You got transferred, remember? You work for Coulson now, no wonder you can't get into Fury's office," the brunette grinned. "He's a ninja master of all things security. He probably kicked you off the access list as soon as he could."

"Thanks for that," Leo grimaced, shoving the pass back in his pocket and glancing back at Steve. "You could have told me sooner."

"I forgot," the other agent said innocently. "Stand back, daddy'll let you in."

He waved his own pass at the door and a light at the side turned green and beeped happily. Steve glanced surreptitiously at the device as he followed the other two inside. It appeared to be some kind of sensor, which made absolutely no sense unless this was actually sci-fi, but he was prepared to overlook that in light of the fact that it was helpfully displaying the name of the brunette.

"Hey, Fury," Matt called as they entered the office, "guess who we brought home?"

Steve shut the door behind him and turned around to see a dark-skinned man in a long trench coat sitting at a desk, immersed in paperwork and looking remarkably frustrated. He didn't look up when they entered.

"Busy, Parker," Fury replied in a long-suffering tone. Steve wondered if the man was actually called 'Fury' or if that was just his hard-earned nickname.

"Yeah, but I think you'll want to see this," Matt said, utterly unfazed by his boss' disinterest.

"Still busy," Fury said, not looking up. "You pick the kids up?"

Matt groaned. "I forgot about them."

"Easy to do," Fury said acidly, "there's just so many kid ninjas around here that it's pretty simple to lose track of them all."

At this point, Fury finally looked up. And saw Steve.

"HOLY MOTHER OF -"

Matt looked pleased with himself. Leo busied himself with trying to melt into the floor. Steve stood up as straight as he could, not really understanding why his appearance had caused this reaction but prepared to endure it as long as he needed to find some answers. Fury turned to Matt.

"When did he wake up?"

"About fifteen minutes ago," Matt said. Fury frowned in concentration as he tried to work out when that was. "You were mid-rant, I think," he added helpfully.

Fury bristled, but with some effort managed to restrain himself from continuing said rant.

"Right. Priorities, Parker. First, we find the kids. Then I'll sort out Rogers. Hawkins, find Coulson."

Leo groaned and vanished through another door. Fury swept out the way they had just entered. Matt made an 'after you' gesture with his hand, and Steve followed.

Finally, the answers were in his sights.

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><p><strong>AN I killed Fury. I'm sorry.**

**This is short, but it just kind of stopped here. Next chapter, we meet Coulson and the kid ninjas.**

**Reviews are always welcome, especially if there's something you don't like. This is unbeta'd, so I'd really like to hear your thoughts.**

**Until next time.**

**Hawk :D**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Sorry it's been a while, I got inundated with coursework. But that's over now, so have another chapter. Just want to thank DeGenerateVamp, Summer Leigh Wind and starfire25 for the reviews to the last chapter. Starfire25 - thanks for the beta offer, but I think I've got everything sorted now :) Your review did remind me that I need to actually write this thing though XD**

**Onwards.**

Steve followed Matt and Fury obediently back through the base. Eventually they entered a gym, where two kids who could only have been about nine were chasing each other around an impromptu obstacle course while a third, older boy watched disinterestedly from the sidelines. He looked up as they approached.

"Rogers, this is Rookie Barney Barton," Fury said by way of explanation.

"He woke up?" Barney frowned. "Was he meant to do that?"

Steve looked expectantly at Fury, wondering what kind of question that was supposed to be, but he ignored both of them.

"Barton, don't you have somewhere to be?"

Barney got to his feet, glancing at the other kids. "Cube-watching, right. Except I was kid-watching instead, because somebody didn't turn up to get them." He glared pointedly at Matt before grabbing a small duffel bag from the floor and traipsing towards the exit. Steve watched him go.

'Rookie'? What was this, some kind of kid army training camp? What were kids like Barney doing on a base with secret agents?

"Parker, go round up Barton and Romanoff," Fury snapped. Matt nodded and ran towards the red-headed girl, who smiled cheekily and sprang lithely up into the rafters. Groaning theatrically, Matt followed - marginally less gracefully, yet with the ease of somebody who did this a lot.

"How old are they?" Steve asked in bemusement.

Fury raised an eyebrow at him. "That's the question you ask first?" He shook his head with a wry grin. "These two are nine. The one that just left was fourteen."

"Why are they here?" Steve frowned. "Are they somebody's kids or something?" That made sense. The three of them could easily have been simply dumped in the 'crèche' for the day while their parents did their super-secret spy thing. "Where even is here?"

"It's a long story," Fury muttered. He sighed heavily, glancing up at his agent who was busy commando-rolling around in the rafters while small, foam projectiles were fired at him. When he finally looked back at Steve, he appeared inexplicably resigned. "How much have you worked out?"

The question caught Steve off-guard. "Not that much," he replied honestly, mentally bracing himself for whatever was causing Fury's expression. "This is some kind of military base, right? Back in America, probably. What's the situation with the war?"

Fury stared at him. "The war's over, Rogers."

Steve stared back, confused. "What, the Nazis just gave up? What about Hydra?"

"It's been over forty years."

Steve frowned. If he had been confused before, that was nothing compared to this. "You're not serious?"

Fury shook his head. "Deadly serious, Captain. Howard Stark died last year. Car crash."

"What?"

Fury didn't reply, just kept staring calmly at him through those dark, passive eyes. Meanwhile, Steve's insides were in an unfortunate state of turmoil. He couldn't quite force his mind to process what it was being told, but his stomach was currently residing somewhere around his knees and suddenly he felt sick. He searched the other man's eyes for a glint, something, to reassure him that this wasn't happening, but there was nothing.

Howard was dead.

"Peggy?" he managed to choke out, dreading the answer even before it came.

"She's still around. 66 now though, of course."

Steve felt relief surge through his body. He sat heavily on the floor, mind still trying to come to terms with the situation.

Focus, Rogers.

"What happened?" he asked weakly.

"I haven't been around all that long," Fury pointed out, "but it's essentially S.H.I.E.L.D. history. After you crashed that plane they couldn't find you. Didn't know where you went, or even if you were still alive. Not for lack of trying, mind you. With Hydra scattered and disarmed we won the war. Howard and Peggy helped to found S.H.I.E.L.D. in your memory - an espionage and law enforcement division to deal with what others could not, namely superhuman and paranormal threats.

After that Howard basically devoted his life to finding you. And then, last year, he finally managed it. You were trapped in the ice - cryogenically frozen for forty years, perfectly preserved down to the star-spangled uniform. We didn't know when, or if, you would wake up. Of course, he'll never get to find out now. After he died, Peggy resigned from S.H.I.E.L.D. to look after his son -"

"He had a son?" Steve butted in, latching onto the one tangible fact in Fury's story.

"Yeah, Tony. He's eleven. Bright kid. Even brighter than his dad, you could say. He's had us running around like crazy recently - caused a bit of an uprising over here. See, when Howard died, he left Stark Industries to his son. The first thing the nutjob did when he inherited his dad's millions? Built himself an entirely robotic, flying suit of armour, complete with an in-built AI that he created when he was only just out of diapers. Of course, he's orphaned, now - Maria was in that car too."

"Maria?" Steve said, grinning slowly. "Not Maria Carbonell?"

"The very same," Fury affirmed. "You knew her?"

"She was the daughter of one of the older scientists that we worked with during the war," Steve said, trying to keep a straight face, "he kept trying to impress her with all his gadgets, but it never worked out."

"Well apparently it did," Fury said, straightening up and striding across the room to shout at Matt some more. Steve remained where he was and waited patiently for his mind to stop reeling.

Just then, a shorter man burst into the room, Leo following behind him. Steve got to his feet and waited for him to catch his breath.

"Steve Rogers?" the man panted, looking elated when Steve nodded. "I gotta say - it's an honour to meet you - in person, I mean. I sort of met you before; I watched you when you were sleeping - I mean, I was present while you were unconscious -"

"Coulson," Fury interrupted, coming over with Matt and the two kids in tow. "I just told Rogers about Howard."

"Oh right, yes," Coulson said sheepishly. "Sorry. Terrible loss, I know."

"Do you want to visit Peggy?" Leo said, rolling his eyes at his boss' antics. Steve's heart leapt.

"You can take me?"

"Coulson's brief was, and I quote, 'monitor Steve Rogers until he wakes up'. He's done that, he'll have at least three hours before the Powers That Be come up with something else for him to do," the redhead pointed out. Coulson glared at him half-heartedly, but cast a hopeful glance at Steve.

"Would you like that?"

Steve considered it for all of about a millisecond. "If she wants to see me," he confirmed, trying to contain his excitement.

"You two go and do that," Matt said. "We'll stay here. Clean up. Look after the kids."

"Hey!" the boy said indignantly. "We don't need looking after."

"Shh, Clint," Matt said, bending down next to the boy's ear in order to make his stage-whisper heard. "You gotta help us set them up!"

"Eww," Clint giggled, squirming away and burying his face in the girl's shoulder. She patted his head disinterestedly.

Fury cleared his throat and was rewarded with an impish grin from all three of them. Sensing defeat, Coulson turned to Steve and cocked his head towards the door.

"Have fun with Peggy," Leo called as Steve followed Coulson quickly towards the exit.

"We should call you Cupid," he heard Matt accuse Leo in amused disbelief.

Steve shut the door firmly behind himself, trying to ignore Coulson's burning red ears.

**A/N Okay that was mean, sorrynotsorry, but it was waaay too funny to resist. I don't ship them, btw. They're just amusing. I apologise for the lack of Steve angst, but unlike I'm Alive, this fic actually has a plotline, so I can't dwell on the mental torture/agony etc. for too long. If you want angst, go wallow in Clint's. He's more deserving of your pain anyway.**

**Woah. Put that down. Don't do something you'll -**

**Ooof. Ouch. I'm sorry, okay? Seriously... some people.**


	5. Chapter 5

He was nervous. He'd never been this nervous before. Come to think of it, he'd never cared for the outcome quite so much before. There was probably a link there, should he take a second to consider it, but for the moment he had more pressing matters to attend to.

His opponent, a fully-grown Chitauri male with a heavily scarred face, leered down at him from the heights of adulthood. Loki stared back, his young eyes set in defiant determination. All he had to do was outlast this one threat and there would be an army waiting for him, to bow to his every command and exact revenge on his lying past. His Mentor had promised. And his Mentor always carried through on his promises.

He remembered the fateful day with painful precision.

_He followed Thor and Sif and their friends as they pushed their way through the crowd towards the source of the commotion, Thor using his title and their youngest brother Baldr, held at arm's length, to gain himself some elbow room. Nobody noticed the second Prince of Asgard as he slipped quietly after them, standing on tiptoes to see what was causing the frenzied chatter that filled the air above the youngsters' heads._

_A frost giant lay on the dirty paving slabs. It was relatively small for a frost giant, Loki thought. The tales he had heard in his younger years had painted them as ugly brutes that towered over any valiant Asgardian who stood in their way. This one looked vulnerable and oddly peaceful - as peaceful as one could appear with a spear sticking out of one's belly, anyway._

_A trio of Einherjar attempted to ward off the crowd, creating a circle around the corpse. Thor pushed Baldr in front of him and barged his way through, turning to complain at Sif when she snatched the child to safety from the clutches of his overexcited brother. Loki slipstreamed effortlessly, using the distraction to kneel beside the body. As he poked tentatively at it with a small finger, the frost giant suddenly opened its eyes and grabbed his wrist._

_Loki felt a stream of ice shoot through his veins and he broke away and stood up, staring at the Jotun with wide eyes and cradling his wrist before himself. Then he realised that the crowd had gone silent. The Einherjar had reached for their weapons, while his brothers and their friends were staring at him - no, not at him; his wrist._

_Loki risked a glance down and felt dread seep through his body. He turned and fled his brothers, and his friends, and the Einherjar, dodging and ducking through the crowd until he broke free on the other side. Then he ran._

They had eventually cornered him before the gates of the citadel. The confusion radiating from his brothers had been enough that he dared not meet their eyes. The Einherjar had not been so unassuming, and they brandished their spears at him defensively. Loki had still been able to see the stain of the Jotun's blood upon one of them, and he had wondered briefly whether his was soon to join it there. After all, they were kin. Jotun were not treated kindly on Asgard.

But just as he was preparing himself to be killed, by those who had brought him up no less, his Mentor had saved him. How, he did not know, but suddenly everything had gone black, and Loki had awoken in an unfamiliar realm.

He was suspicious at first, but his Mentor had explained everything to him. He had felt lost and hurt, abandoned even, when he had found out what his so-called family had done. However, he had quickly realised the futility of these sentiments, and his young mind had turned instead to more constructive paths. He wished for justice. Was that truly too much for one boy to ask? He, who had been brought up with the singular belief that he would one day be able to rule, to lead his kingdom as a king should, only to find that his family had been lying to him all that time that they were puffing him up, preparing him for greatness. To have discovered that one's own existence was nothing more than self-delusion was to be smitten by one's own brother.

And finally, he had a chance to claim justice for himself. So as he stared up at the Chitauri in front of him, he did not allow himself to feel fear, or remorse at what he was about to do. He did not allow himself to feel anything.

There was only his purpose. He could not fail.

**A/N I had to get Baldr in there. Sorry. He's incredibly undervalued.**

**Anyway. The Einherjar are the Asguards. (That was a pun, not a misspelling.) I took it straight from the Thor: the Dark World game thing on my phone, but then googled it and realised that they're actually spirits of fallen warriors or something, brought back to life by the Valkryies in Norse mythology. So much for that. Just go with it.**

**I swear I'm the only person on the planet who has seen Thor, Avengers and Thor 2 and still doesn't like Loki. Please tell me how terribly I screwed him up in this chapter, because this isn't exactly the last we see of him and I'd quite like to make him vaguely convincing. Thor might seem a bit OOC in the chapter, since he doesn't stand up for his brother, but he's just being a good boy and staying out of the way of the plot. Plus he's a bit slow to react.**

**Next up: Tony and Peggy.**


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